Musical instrument

ABSTRACT

A musical instrument having a base and an arm extending upwardly therefrom and a string extending over said arm and said base and connected at one end to the upper portion of the arm and at the lower end to a stand which pivotally supports the base, the string being located at a preset height over a pickup in the base by means of a guide located on the lower portion of the base.

United States Patent 1191 Manor Oct. 21, 1975 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT [54]v2,559,200 7/1951 Schaf 84/267 2,796,795 6/1957 Bach t 84/173 [76]Inventor- Doyle -1 Mcclennan 2,837,953 6/1958 Baschet 84/173 x GranadaH1118, callf- 91344 2,909,092 10/1959 Armond et al 84/1.l5 3,251,2585/1966 Parker [22] d 1975 3,575,078 4/1971 Currier 84 173 [21] Appl.No.: 550,636

- Primary Examiner-Joseph W. Hartary 521 US. 01. 84/1.l6; 84/173;84/327; ASS/9mm Examinerismnley Witkowski 248/443 Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Robert E. Geaugue [51] Int. Cl. ...G10D 1/00;G1OG 5/00',G10l-l 3/00[58] Field of Search 84/l.04, 1.l4l.16, [57] ABSTRACT 84/173 267-269 4 72 2 9 A musical instrument having a base and an arm extending upwardlytherefrom and a string extending R f Ct d over said arm and said baseand connected at one end e erences e to the upper portion of the arm andat the lower end UNITED STATES PATENTS to a stand which pivotallysupports the base, the string 516,427 '3/1894 Bent 84/269 being locatedat a preset height over a pickup in the 934,063 9/ 1909 Gray.... 84/173.X base by means of a guide located on the lower portion 1,679,834 8/1928Lentz 84/173 x f the has, 2,033,826 3/193 6 l-laium 84/173 2,168,7368/1939 Jones 84/173 4 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures Fig. 1.

\ MUSICAL INSTRUMENT BACKGROUND OF INVENTION A type of musicalinstrument presently in use consists of a single string attached at oneend to the bottom of an inverted tub and at the other end to a handlewhich pivots on the edge of the tub. The back and forth movement of thehandle changes the tension on the string and varies the tone produced bypicking or stroking the string. The tones are amplified by the wash tubserving as the sounding board. A structure of this type is illustratedin U.S. Pat. No. 2,861,494 and a modification is shown in U.S. Pat. No.1,679,834 which utilizes a pitch fork with prongs secured to a box andstrings supported along the length of the pitch fork. The constructionsof these devices are not conducive to obtaining good tone quality whichcan be projected a distance from the instrument.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The improved instrument of the presentinvention incorporates the principle of tensioning a string to obtaindifferent tones resulting from plucking or stroking of the string.However, the instrument is generally in the shape of a base guitar andcomprises a base and a handle extending therefrom. The base is pivotallymounted on a stand for movement by the handle and a string is attachedat one end to the upper end of the handle and at the other end to thestand. The string extends across the base and is guided by rollers atthe lower edge of the base to connect with the-bottom portion of thestand. Pivot arms extend to each side of the base and are supported inbearing surfaces on opposite sides of the support frame or stand. Anamplifier pickup is located in the base and has an outlet at one side ofthe base for connection to a standard amplifying system. The guiderollers at the lower edge of the base maintain the string in properalignment over the magnetic pickup and at a proper height over themagnetic pickup while still permitting the tension on the string to varyupon movement of the arm attached to the body. Thus, the inventionprovides a musical instrument utilizing a structure which permits theincorporation of a magnetic pickup in association with the string.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front elevational view ofthe musical instrument of the present invention showing the basepivotally mounted on a support stand;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view taken from the right side of FIG. 1showing the arm located in several posi- DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERREDEMBODIMENT The embodiment of the invention 9 chosen for purpose ofillustration is shown in FIG. 1 and comprises a base 10 which can beconstructed of wood and shaped to simulate the base of an electricalbass guitar. A substantially horizontal cross piece 11 extendstransversely across the back of instrument base and is attached theretoby a plurality of screws 12. The cross piece 11 has ends 11a and 11bwhich extend on opposite sides of the base 10 in order to pivotallysupport the base on the stand 14. The stand 14 consists of identicalside members 15 and 16, each of which can be formed from a single pieceof rod or pipe. Side 16 is bent to form a base 16a and legs 16b and 16cand the end of the leg 16c can be secured to the base 16a in anysuitable manner. See FIG. 2. The side 15 is formed'in the identicalmanner and the sides 15 and 16 are connected together by cross pieces 18and 19 in order to hold the frame sides rigidly spaced apart and inupright position. The apex at the top junction of each pair of legs iscurved inwardly to form a semicircular bearing surface 20 and thesebearing surfaces support ends llaand 11b of cross piece 11. The base 10is therefore free to rotate about the axis of the cross member 11 whichin turn is rotatably supported by stand 14.

Arm 22 extends along the back of the base 10 from the cross piece 11 andis secured to the cross piece 11 by screws 24 passing vertically throughthe cross piece 11 and into the end of the arm 22. See FIG. 3. Also, thearm is secured to base 10 by screws 23 spaced vertically along the backside of the base. See FIGS. 3 and 4. The upper end 22a of arm 22consists of a handle which can be gripped by the player of theinstrument in order to rotate the instrument about the axis of the crosspiece 11. A hook 25 is located at the upper portion of the arm 22 forattachment of upper end 26a of string 26 to the handle. The lower end26b of string 26 is attached to hook 28 which is connected at the centerof cross piece 19 of the stand 14. Thus, the string 26 extends along thecenter of arm 22 downwardly from hook 25 across the center of body 10 tothe hook 28 on the cross frame 19. A magnetic pickup 30. of standardconstruction, such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,092, is locatedcentrally in the base 10 so that it is directly below the string 26. Thepickup is electrically connected with an outlet 29 at one edge of thebase 10 which receives plug 32 and the plug is connected to the end ofwire 33 leading to a standard amplifier system (not shown).

Guide 34 is located at the lower edge of the base 10 and consists ofrollers 40 and 41 which are supported by angularly shaped brackets 35and 36both secured to base 10 by screws 37. Short axles extend fromopposite ends of each roller and are located in openings in the bracketsfor rotatably supporting the rollers. As is apparent in FIG. 5, theroller 40 is higher than the roller 41 and is closer to the pickup 30than is the lower roller 41 since the rollers are vertically staggered.The surface of the rollers are adjacent one another and grooves 42 and43 in rollers 40 and 41, respectively, are opposite one another. The twogrooves 42 and 43 provide an opening past the rollers only slightlylarger than the diameter of the string 26. Since the lower portion ofthe roller 40 is slightly below the upper portion of the roller 41, therollers serve to cause the string 22 to make a bend as it passes throughthe rollers and roller 40 holds the string 22 at a fixed elevation abovethe base 10 and magnetic pickup 30 regardless of the angular positionassumed by the base 10 about the axis of support 11. Also, the groovesin rollers 40 and 41 are in alignment with the hooks 25 and 28 so thatthe rollers maintain the string straight between the two hooksl".

The slight depression of roller 40 causes the string to engage the lowergroove surface in roller 40 and the location of this groove surfacedetermines the height of string 26.

In playing the musical instrument, theplayer stands to one side of thestand 14 and grips the handle 22a. He then can rotate the instrumentabout the support axis 11 to vary the tension of the string 26 whichcontinually passes over the pickup 30 at a fixed height regardless ofthe angular position of the instrument. A backward position of arm 22 isillustrated by phantom lines in FIG. 2 wherein the string is tensionedmore than when the arm is straight up as in the full line position. Thechange in tension will change the frequency at which the string willvibrate and thereby the output tone. The string can be a standard Estring of a bass guitar or any other suitable string of a stringedinstrument. It is apparent that the height of the top hook 25 will alsoaffect the height of the string over the base and the pickup. The stringcan be metal wound and have sufficient stretch to permit the change intone to vary over at least an octave and a half.

What is claimed is:

l. A musical instrument comprising:

a base and an arm extending upwardly from the top edge of the base;

a handle at the upper end of said arm;

a substantially horizontal cross member connected to said base andextending to opposites sides of said base;

a stand for rotatably supporting said cross member at opposite sides ofsaid base to provide for rotation of said base and said handle about theaxis of said cross member;

' a first hook connected to an upper portion of said arm and a secondhook connected to a portion of said stand below said base;

a string connected at opposite ends to said hooks and passing over saidarm and said base;

guide means located at the lower portion of said base for maintainingsaid string in alignment between said two hooks and at a desired heightabove said base; and

pickup means located in said base underneath said string and connectedwith an output at the side of said base;

said guide means fixing the height of said string above said pickupmeans in order to reproduce the various tones produced by vibration ofsaid string under varying tension determined by the angular position ofsaid handle- 2. A musical instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein saidguide means comprises a pair of staggered rollers supported at the lowerportion of said base, said rollers having aligned grooves therein toreceive and bend said string so as to maintain said string at thedesired height over said base.

3. A musical instrument as defined in claim 1 wherein said standcomprises side members interconnected with cross pieces located at thebottom of the stand;

said second hook being connected to one of said cross pieces.

4. A musical instrument as defined in claim 3 wherein each of said sidemembers has an apex at the top thereof, each side member having a curvedsurface at said apex for providing a bearing surface for the portion ofsaid cross member at opposite sides of said base. =l

1. A musical instrument comprising: a base and an arm extending upwardlyfrom the top edge of the base; a handle at the upper end of said arm; asubstantially horizontal cross member connected to said base andextending to opposites sides of said base; a stand for rotatablysupporting said cross member at opposite sides of said base to providefor rotation of said base and said handle about the axis of said crossmember; a first hook connected to an upper portion of said arm and asecond hook connected to a portion of said stand below said base; astring connected at opposite ends to said hooks and passing over saidarm and said base; guide means located at the lower portion of said basefor maintaining said string in alignment between said two hooks and at adesired height above said base; and pickup means located in said baseunderneath said string and connected with an output at the side of saidbase; said guide means fixing the height of said string above saidpickup means in order to reproduce the various tones produced byvibration of said string under varying tension determined by the angularposition of said handle.
 2. A musical instrument as defined in claim 1wherein said guide means comprises a pair of staggered rollers supportedat the lower portion of said base, said rollers having aligned groovestherein to receive and bend said string so as to maintain said string atthe desired height over said base.
 3. A musical instrument as defined inclaim 1 wherein said stand comprises side members interconnected withcross pieces located at the bottom of the stand; said second hook beingconnected to one of said cross pieces.
 4. A musical instrument asdefined in claim 3 wherein each of said side members has an apex at thetop thereof, each side member having a curved surface at said apex forproviding a bearing surface for the portion of said cross member atopposite sides of said base.